Remembered Lesson

I went to the end of my driveway yesterday and found a patriotic looking sealed bag. At first I thought it was trash but when I looked closer I noticed the twist tie. I brought it up to the house, opened it, and found a couple of post it pads and some candy, all advertising one of those check cashing places. I thought, "Who in their right mind would let their kids eat some candy that had been tossed by the side of the road?"

At that point, the world began its twisting shimmer signifying the way back machine was kicking into gear. All aboard for a look into Misfit's long ago past...

My Father was at work and my Mother was running errands somewhere leaving my big sister in charge. We weren't to go anywhere, not even the barn. And, once again, the television was 'broken' (it wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned my Mother had simply been unplugging it during the day so we wouldn't watch too much. You would think I would have questioned why it was always working at night!) so we had nothing to do. Sigh.

Big Sis was a total rule follower. If our parents said to do something, she complied with no arguments. She was the worst kind of babysitter because she always toed the line. No chance of any fun happening while the parents were away.

On that particular day however, she decided she might be willing to break the rules. She and I would walk down to the local Mom and Pop store and buy some candy. Cool! This particular store still had penny candy (tootsie rolls and Mary Janes, Bazooka gum and Now and Later's) so our 25 cent allowance would go far!

The store was about half a mile down the state road we lived on. Plenty of traffic but we never felt we were in danger. We scored our candy and headed back home with no one of the parent persuasion any the wiser.

Everything was going fine until my Mother noticed Sis chewing on some candy.

"Where did you get that?" Mother asked.

Now big Sis did not want to get in trouble for breaking the rules so she said, "I found it laying alongside the road."

"Really? You are eating candy you found along the road?" Mother's voice had climbed an octave or two.

"Yup," Sis responded.

That was all my Mother needed to hear. She freaked out wondering what kind of tainted garbage her daughter had eaten. For all Mother knew, it could be poison! She couldn't take any chances. She grabbed the syrup of ipecac and made Sis swallow a bunch of it.

Wow. Sis started puking like you wouldn't believe! She puked and heaved and gasped and puked some more. It seemed to last forever.

When it got to the point she could puke no more, my Mother turned to me and asked (ominous drum roll), "Did you eat any of that candy?"

"NO!"

There was no way I was going to go through what I had just seen my sister go through.

We never did confess to Mother (although I wouldn't be surprised if she knew the truth all along) and big Sis didn't break any more rules for a long, long time.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that I will never eat anything I find lying alongside the road!